Melody Barnes predicts bipartisan push on education

Melody Barnes, the president’s Domestic Policy Adviser, is “very, very hopeful” about the chances for bipartisan cooperation on education this year.

In a Tuesday interview for the POLITICO video series “What Lies Ahead,” the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council said she believes Republicans will go along with some proposed fixes to the controversial “No Child Left Behind” law when it comes time for re-authorization.

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VIDEO: Balance of investment, deficit control

VIDEO: Optimistic GOP will reauthorize 'No Child'

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VIDEO: Optimistic GOP will reauthorize 'No Child'

“We’ve learned a lot in the years since No Child Left Behind was signed into law [in 2001],” Barnes said. “And, one, people think the idea of accountability that was established there was a smart one, and we want to maintain that. But people also recognize that there are things that have to be fixed, that we need greater flexibility for those schools that are doing well, those teachers that are doing well, so that they can help ensure the kind of creativity and thinking, the skills that our kids are going to need for those jobs of the future.”

“At the same time, we’re going to be responsive to the fact that we’ve got dropout factories in this country, and we’ve got to turn those schools around,” she added.

“So I believe that there will be a coalescing around those ideas and that we’ll be able to move forward with them.”

Barnes, who was on the board of a charter school, worked as a lawyer on the Senate Judiciary Committee for the late Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) as he shepherded the legislation through the Senate.

The law was a signature accomplishment of George W. Bush, and now-Speaker John Boehner played a key role in shaping the original bill as chairman of the House Education committee. Many in the GOP recognize that a political victory on education would improve President Barack Obama’s standing among key voting blocs going into the 2012 election, which diminishes the chance for compromise.

That doesn’t seem to deter Barnes.

“I’m also hopeful because we’ve been doing great work over the past couple of years, working with Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the House, also governors all around the nation,” she said. “We’re hearing from people on the ground in the states, on the local level, and they’re telling us what they need. And that really corresponds quite well with the blueprint that we put out about a year ago setting the direction that we think we need to go in for education reform.”

Barnes — interviewed at the White House just hours before the State of the Union — said Tuesday’s speech was written more to outline a vision for the future than to put forth specifics. She says the budget, which comes out soon will be “very specific” and lay out “a road map for where he believes we need to go forward, both with those investments and with those necessary cuts.”

Here’s what Barnes said on other matters:

The President now is being described as “resurgent.” It’s been a while since you’ve heard that. What’s it like to be in a different place?

I think for the president, what he’s focused on is whether or not the American economy is resurgent, and we feel like we have come back from the cliff that we were teetering on when we walked into office a couple of years ago. We’re starting to see consecutive months of job increases and also companies reporting profits. Those are all wonderful signs. But there’s so much more that we have to do.

By all means, let's spend a few more billion dollars on education so the union teahcers can get fatter. Then maybe we can overtake Bulgaria in math proficiency in 17th place compared with other countries..... Great job, UNION TEACHERS!!!!

Melody, property of the education "robber barons" must not realize that "education" has been severely over funded for decades. There are many Dems and RINO's who have her back. They are corrupt. They have to go.

Gosh, we had 80 kids in my classroom and we were considered top schools with just a high school degree. There are worlds of difference between when I attended college in the 60's and then in the 90's.In the 60's you had to read and write; in the 90's you only had to listen to the lecture because this was the only thing on tests.

Just how do the dems expect to clean up those schools that are failing? Oh, throw more money at them. We see how that went with welfare.

I have a suggestion, why don't we cut welfare, cut drug profits, and depend on what wages and education parents and kids make and do? Oh, that was too successful in the past.

Isn't it amazing that Asians come here and beat the pants off us without all the welfare and money thrown at them and reps in these areas can't get out of the civil rights movement?

Get rid of the DOE. Return education back to the states. We dump billions of dollars down the drain trying to improve education and it is not working people. Lets try something different. Why are the feds incharge of education any way? Many cities have a 33% graduation rate or less. The definition of insanity is when you keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result.

Republicans are seizing on “investment,” and they’re saying that means “spending.”

You know, I understand that, but I think what the American public will understand very practically is that you have to make smart investments — not just any investment, but a smart investment. And because we didn’t invest in education in the past, we now see that America is ranked in the middle of the pack when we look at our global competitors as opposed to the top of the pack. We can do better. We have to do better.

I think, when people think about this, they’ll understand. You know what? That bridge is crumbling, that road is crumbling. But also we don’t have the kind of national broadband system, we don’t have the kind of technological infrastructure that’s going to help our health care economy do better. And we have to do better in that way as well. I think people will see these as smart investments not only for the well-being of families and the economy, but to make sure that we’re creating jobs and that the president is doing it in conjunction with the kinds of cuts that he says we have to make because we can’t afford not to.

We are spending between $10-15K per student. HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH. Also, here comes the NCLB "correctios" where the money keeps flowing but the accountability is removed, e. g. no testing. And if Melody Baernes is so concerned about education, she should quit her job and run for her local school committee. The federal government should not be involved in education.

Ms Melody was a EVP for Center for America Progress (a Soros funded entity)....before she infiltrated the White House. She has one of the largest offices in the West Wing, corner office, lots of windows overlooking the park........

A great example of leadership. President Bush and Senator Kennedy coming together to help our nation's children. President Obama could learn from this example.

Yep and they created a law that has left every child in the United States behind. You have no idea how bad this law is or the damage it has done. Only time will let those with blinders on see how bad this really is. It needs to be repealed in its totality. It is a money waster and a bottomless pit.